Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“Watch your mouth with me, boy,” the man growled at me. “Or I’ll let my son begin fileting the skin from your fucking bones, dissect your body, and we’ll begin delivering you back to Rico one piece at a fucking time.”
In any other situation, I’d have taunted him. But I kept my mouth shut. I was outnumbered and unarmed. If I wanted any chance of escaping, I needed to play this smart. If I died, I feared Rico would bring me back from the dead just to kill me even more brutally for making his husband go through the pain of losing someone close to him.
“Rico owes me, and you fucked up my whole plan of kidnapping his husband to get what I want from him—”
My abrupt laugh cut him off. Unable to help myself, I began clapping, applauding him for his fucking stupidity. “You really fucking think you’ll get what you want from Rico by kidnapping me?” I asked. His glare said it all. My laughter only grew louder. “You really are fucking stupid, huh? He must’ve gotten all his smarts from his ma considering he definitely didn’t get them from you. News flash, dumbass—” his eyes darkened with rage, and his son stepped forward, but I was on a fucking roll and not heeding the warning— “I’m nothing more than a street rat that Rico rescued. He couldn’t give two fucks about whether I live or die.” And that was honestly the sad fucking truth. I was a soldier who was easily replaceable.
“He’ll come looking,” his father growled.
I shrugged. “To get revenge for the hell you put his husband through, probably. But to rescue me? Nah. He’s not coming for that.” I held my arms out, already knowing this was end game for me and apologizing to Anurak in my mind. Even if none of this was his fault, he was going to feel guilty for the rest of his life, regardless. I only hoped Rico and Anurak’s other man, Ace, could save him from spiraling. “So, come on. Put an end to it, old fuck. Rico’s not coming for me.”
“Even if he didn’t, I fucking always will,” Niran said from the entrance to the cooler, his voice eerily calm.
I swung my gaze to him in surprise right as Rico’s brother grabbed me and held a knife to my throat, putting me between Niran’s automatic rifle and his body, using me as a shield.
What a fucking cliché.
“Nice of you to show up,” I rasped just as the knife bit into my skin and warm liquid trickled down my neck.
Niran’s eyes showed nothing, but his lips quirked in amusement. “You’ve been mine since the moment Rico brought you home,” he told me, his eyes cold and calculating as he took in the cooler, the dead carcasses, and the men filling the icy room. “No one gets to fucking take you from me.”
And just like that, he fired off the first shot, taking down a guard just over my shoulder, the bullet whizzing past my ear as loud as a fucking siren.
8
Niran
It was nice to see that option two was what we had to work with—that they were down on their means and dumb as fuck. Turning off their security feed on the way to their location had been as simple as hacking into their Wi-Fi system and turning it off, which meant we’d infiltrated the building with absolutely no fucking problem because no one was aware we were even there.
I was almost disappointed by the lack of challenges. I would’ve hoped someone who had the balls to try to kidnap Rico’s husband would at least be a bit smarter and have more resources, but they were just as dumb as a box of rocks.
It was silent when we walked inside the packaging plant, and Alfonzo and I took the lead, covering each room before we allowed Rico inside. While the man could definitely hold his own, he had us now so he didn’t have to. And honestly, even if I wasn’t his personal guard, I’d still do it just so I wouldn’t have to hear more of Anurak’s crying if something happened to his Papi. I’d had enough of that boy’s tears to last me a lifetime.
As we moved deeper into the warehouse, voices began to reach us, though they were faint. Alfonzo and I split up to come at them from both sides. Rico went with Alfonzo, along with one of the guards I’d brought with us, and the other two came with me. I followed the sound of voices, coming to an open door that led into a meat freezer. And standing in the middle of a circle of about twelve men was my man.
Bento was outnumbered, his lips and fingertips were blue, and he had bruises forming on his face. He was clearly on the verge of hypothermia, if he wasn’t already there. My jaw tightened at the sight of him.